Fixed-wing drones are provided with at least one rotor driven by at least one respective motor. Rotary-wing drones are provided with multiple rotors driven by respective motors which can be controlled in a differentiated manner so as to pilot the drone in attitude and speed. A typical example of such a drone is the AR.Drone, the Bebop Drone or the Bebop 2 of Parrot SA, Paris, France, which is a quadricopter equipped with a series of sensors (accelerometers, 3-axis gyrometers, altimeters), a front camera capturing an image of the scene towards which the drone is directed, and a vertical-view camera capturing an image of the overflown ground.
International patent WO 2010/061099 A2 and European patent EP 2 364 757 A1 (Parrot SA) describe such a drone as well as the principle of piloting thereof through a touch-screen multimedia telephone or media player having an integrated accelerometer, for example a cellular phone of the iPhone® type or a multimedia player or tablet of the iPod Touch® or iPad® type. The drone is piloted by the user by means of signals emitted by the apparatus inclination sensor, the inclinations being replicated by the drone: for example, to make the drone move forward, the user tilts his apparatus about the pitch axis thereof, and to move the drone aside to the right or to the left, he tilts this apparatus with respect to the roll axis thereof. That way, if the drone is controlled so as to tilt or “dive” downward (inclination according to a pitch angle), it will move forward with a speed that is all the more high that the inclination angle is significant; conversely, if it is controlled so as to “nose up” in the opposite direction, its speed will progressively slow down, then will invert, going back rearward. In the same way, for controlling the inclination about a roll axis, the drone will lean to the right or to the left, causing a linear displacement in horizontal translation to the right or to the left. The user has at his disposal other commands, which are displayed on the touch screen, in particular “move up/move down” (throttle control) and “rotation to the right/rotation to the left” (rotation of the drone about its yaw axis).